Comments | dearliza: good question

dearliza

good question

Jul 01, 2006 15:04

I spent last week in Austin at a conference with young people from all over the country that are starting M.Div. programs this fall. There were a lot of people there from really good schools like Harvard and Yale, so the conversations were fun all week. Most of the people there were from liberal, mainline denominations ( Read more... )

Comments 10

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dearliza July 1 2006, 21:53:01 UTC

A short, clear answer to either. Specifically about why not to have sex if you're in a committed relationship and you both love each other.

My first thoughts went to talking about how sex was a special thing that God designed for married people, but I couldn't really think of anyplace in the Bible that says this, or a good reason for it.

Then my thoughts went to the bad things that can happen with pre-marital sex (pregnancy, STDs, etc.), but she said she hadn't experienced anything negative after sleeping with her boyfriend.

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dearliza July 2 2006, 21:17:02 UTC

The NIV text of I Cor. 6:9-11 uses the words "sexually immoral." I think she would say that having sex within a committed relationship is not sexually immoral.

I agree that God's relationship with people is similar to a marriage relationship, and that marriage is a really good thing. But would you say that dating is wrong because it's not like our relationship with God, because the two people dating might decide they don't want to stay together long-term and break up? And what does that have to do with whether you sleep with your boyfriend/girlfriend?

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anonymous July 2 2006, 00:15:59 UTC

are you kidding?

rockyrockstar July 2 2006, 00:18:39 UTC

That was me. check the ten commandments and sermon on the mount?

(moses said don't commit adultery but i (jesus) say don't even look with lust)
(or paul, among you there must not be even a HINT of sexual immorality)
(or paul again (1 cor 7) it is better to marry than burn with passion, which is the opposite of marriage)

dearliza July 2 2006, 21:33:16 UTC

1st verse: Isn't committing adultery when you sleep with someone who is married to someone else?

2nd verse: How do we know what is sexually immoral?

3rd verse: This one is helpful- It sounds like you have to get married to take care of sexual burning.

Our talk before church today was starting to be helpful. I agree that we don't see sex outside of marriage as ever being a good thing in the Bible.

rockyrockstar July 2 2006, 21:41:37 UTC

on number one, you really have to consider the context. what did adultery mean? sexual unfaithfulness. ultimately, was that limited to marriage?

i would argue that a jewish person hearing that wouldn't have considered for a second that premarital sex was ok.

i guess if pressed for biblical evidence, i would point to joseph's desire to pretect mary from 'shame', and to jesus' extension of this command to include lust.

in other words, the commandment essentially codifies sexuality in marraige as the only proper place.

the reason moses didn't directly address co-habitation or fwb's is that he didn't olive in 2006...

dearliza July 4 2006, 05:37:48 UTC

Thanks for your responses. I definitely think that pre-marital sex is wrong, and it has been helpful for me to think through how to talk about it with other people. There are a lot of things that I consider to be true, but I haven't really thought about how to explain them to people who are coming from a completely different background than me.